Anthony Stark Reviews: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER; 3D

Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters recently, bringing with it plenty of fans as well as great reviews from critics worldwide. CBM's anthonyEstark got the chance to see it, and now I'm here to give you a spoiler-free review of the film. Read on after the jump!

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By anthonyEstark - 4/6/2014

Good Day, fellow fans! On my latest adventure to the theater, I finally nabbed the chance to see Marvel's latest, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. From what I've heard so far, it was “the best stand-alone Marvel film yet” if not even “Better than The Avengers.” So I was extremely curious to see it, as I'm a big fan of the star-spangled hero. So let's begin, shall we?

I'll start off with the plot. We all know the basic story. Two years after the events of The Avengers, Cap has to put on the uniform again to take on his former friend now turned enemy, The Winter Soldier, while teaming up with other heroes such as Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, as well as newcomer the Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie. But I'll tell you now, it gets much deeper than that. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo described the film as “a 70's political thriller” and it was just that. They always had something to keep you on the edge of your seat and waiting to see what would happen next. But it wasn't all plot, there were plenty of 'splosions' for all you action lovers. This brings me to the next category, the visual effects.

While watching the credits of the film, I noticed that Marvel had hired plenty of visual effects crews to work on this, and they certainly used their money wisely. Visual effects in movies have improved over the years, and this is definitely one of the best films to feature effects. While Iron Man 3 may have had a small action fight with all of Tony Stark's armors, and Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim featured both Jaegers and Kaiju, the major disadvantages of those is that everything is set at nighttime, so we don't get the full effect of the VFX team's hard work. But in this, we get to see three of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarriers at battle in the skies, and the best part is that it's all in the middle of the day! The guys who worked on this really put their time into it, and the outcome was great.

Next up, the characters. I was excited to see what Marvel would do with their characters for the movie, with newcomers Falcon and Alexander Pierce, played by Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford. Both of these characters have roles in the comics, where they changed up Pierce's role by making him a large part of S.H.I.E.L.D. Instead of just a normal hand-to-hand combatant. I can say I quite enjoyed the change. Marvel also brought in Brock Rumlow, who was played by Frank Grillo and many comic fans know Rumlow as the infamous Crossbones, a villain to Cap. I hope we can see him in future films as he was a good character to throw into the project. Several other heroes had a large role in the film, being Black Widow, Nick Fury, as well as Maria Hill. I was surprised at this, as we really get to explore the past of these heroes, and giving us things that we haven't seen before in the MCU.

And now it's time to move on to the ultimate factor; the villain. I would put this in the “characters” part of the review, but Sebastian Stan's role was so great that he deserves a whole paragraph. Sebastian Stan played the film's titular villain, “The Winter Soldier,” and while I was expecting him to pull it off, I was pleasantly surprised. In Joe Johnson's original Captain America: The First Avenger, Stan played Bucky Barnes, Cap's partner and a overall light-hearted guy. In this we see a completely different side of the character, who doesn't know who he is or why he's here, but his only job or worry is his next target. I wasn't expecting Stan to have too many lines in the movie, and I was more than right. He only said a few things and didn't need to say more. He pulled off the role intimidatingly, and I was quite surprised.

One thing that I was quite surprised about in this film was the way that it changes the game for Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as future Marvel films. I can't go into detail, as it is a major part of the film's plot and I don't want to spoil it for you. This film is definitely Marvel's most serious yet, and if you haven't enjoyed the large amounts of jokes from Thor: The Dark World or Iron Man 3, then this will certainly be a break for you. But don't fear, as there is still several jokes in there for family to enjoy.

Many of you know that the film was based off of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's comic arc bearing the same title, and was adapted to the film by screen writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. I can honestly say that I was quite happy about seeing the changes and similarities from the comic that were worked into the film.

As usual, be sure to stick around for the after-credit scenes which lead up to The Avengers sequel as well as the confirmed Captain America 3, which I am extremely excited for after seeing this. I had the pleasure of viewing the film in RealD 3D, and while it wasn't spectacular, I recommend it for viewers, as it still looks great and is well worth the extra price.

To summarize everything up, this film was simply amazing, hardly having any flaws. I think it's one of the greatest superhero films released and I can't wait for more, and I hope you join me!

you have to be a child to say nothing was wrong with film. There was alot wrong. It was good but not even 25% of what it was suppose to be. You are delusional if you think it is a 5 star movie. Maybe a 4 star action movie but cmon no one on planet didnt think Redford was a bad guy there was no suspense and the scene at his house with winter soldier was so dumb. My wife who like first captain america hate this movie and almost left in first 30 mintues she was so bored. But hey keep sucking your own dick if you like that taste.

Damn Another 5* review from this site. Going by the last review thread your going to have some lurkers ready to pounce with their undercover hate for this film lol. The Winter Soldier deserves this praise. Great all around performances. Classic!

When Widow was running from Winter Soldier the fear on her face was so strong you could feel it. She looked more frightened than in the Avengers. Winter Soldier was a killing machine- it played like the terminator and it worked on all levels. My fear though is he comes back full memory and not a villain or opponent but an ally...so I really hope Strucker and Ultron pay off huge as villains that stick around for a bit like Loki.

3D did nothing for me. 2D was brighter and more vivid. I am hitting IMAX on Monday to complete the trifecta. That will be my fifth viewing and I feel it will get at least five more before Spider-Man 2 hits

There's only 7 minutes of footage left out according to the directors. The script was tight and they knew what they wanted according to the russo brothers. The development was superb and no one was thrown away (cough fox men).

Comic Book Movie where the hero stold the show. This movie was all Captain America. I will be going back to see the Captain, he was the star of the movie. AAA+++ 5 star movie in my books. The only problem I had with the movie was it had to end. I was sitting there wanting more for once.

I however feel that The Winter Soldier and Falcon were both wasted opportunities. They served no point in the plot and neither of them should have been in the movie. Hawkeye should have replaced Falcon and the villain should have been Zemo or Strucker. Whoever would work best as the leader of HYDRA.

The Winter Soldier was just thrown in for the sake of having him in the movie. I wanted to see Cap and Fury fight, and Cap eventually leave S.H.I.E.L.D. to search for Bucky when Fury tells him not to. THAT should have been the plot. They only used him in a few scenes and they had him introduced just as some character that randomly appears out of nowhere.

Good review. I wonder why it seems that no one is Noticing how much of the story is being taken straight from the secret warriors. It follows that plot line closer than ed's arc. From the deep infiltration of hydra into shield's ranks, hell even the three helicarriers.

Dude, Winter Soldier was the SECOND best villain of the movie. Robert Redford's Pierce was the TRUE villain of Cap 2. Pierce puts the hits on people, eliminates witnesses, and made Fury and Widow look like fools :D! WS shows up only a couple time to shoot people and blow something up, but he had 1% of Pierce's personality and charisma.

@ TheAbaryMan369 I can tell that this film flew over your head. I can you say falcon and bucky were just thrown in for the hell of it? Falcon was a war veteran that Steve could relate to outside of shield. As falcon lost his friend that fought beside him just as Steve did with bucky. Remember the lines "sometimes we leave things there, sometimes we bring them back". Steve could relate to that as well as falcon asking Steve "what makes you happy? What would you do if you were not a soldier? (2nd question will be answered in avengers 2 according to feige)." There was a bond between Steve and falcon that was fulfilling to Steve especially it coming from the outside of a government Enterprise. With bucky as Steve is figuring out everything around him seems to be corrupt or untrustworthy he doesn't realize that the man he is after is a long time friend thought to be dead and at that point what else did you want from bucky as he was a shadow assassin brainwashed and only about his mission directory. This relevation leaves Steve floored as he is not prepared for that after the people he is working for are out to kill him. Going back to falcon, he is basically the only outside person he can trust. You need to watch the film again and take notes. ;)

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